moccasin

American  

[mok-uh-sin, -zuhn] / ˈmɒk ə sɪn, -zən /

noun

• moccasins
  plural

1. a heelless shoe made entirely of soft leather, as deerskin, with the sole brought up and attached to a piece of u -shaped leather on top of the foot, worn originally by the American Indians.

2. a hard-soled shoe or slipper resembling this, often decorated with beads.

3. any of several North American snakes of the genus Agkistrodon (Ancistrodon ), especially the cottonmouth.

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moccasin British  

/ ˈmɒkəsɪn /

noun

1. a shoe of soft leather, esp deerskin, worn by North American Indians

2. any soft shoe resembling this

3. a sheepshearer's footgear, usually made of sacking

4. short for water moccasin

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• moccasins
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of moccasin

1605–15, < Virginia Algonquian < Proto-Algonquian *maxkeseni

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Compare meaning

How does moccasin compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• water snake vs. moccasin

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Explanation

If you lose a moccasin on your way to work, it means you'll be walking around with only one shoe all day. A moccasin is a soft leather slip-on shoe. Virginian Algonquins get credit for the word moccasin, though a relative of it existed in other American Indian languages to designate a leather shoe so elegant in design that it's now known around the world. Less well known, perhaps, is the correct spelling, which you see here. Everyone seems to know there's a double letter but fewer remember that it's the c, not the s.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

moccasin moccasins

Her team then checked this in a variety of snakes - dissecting a total of nine species including the carpet python, puff adder and Mexican moccasin.

From BBC ● Dec. 14, 2022

“He was kind of a grumpy snake, and everybody was going, ‘Omigod, omigod, it's a water moccasin, kill it!’” she recollects.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 18, 2022

The report cites an account that the name was inspired by an imprint shaped like a woman’s moccasin in a granite rock pointing toward the valley.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 18, 2022

Elsewhere, Naylor’s sister slipped in the mud and down into a makeshift privy, ruining her prized moccasin boots.

From Reuters ● Aug. 13, 2019

When the stick turned against the current to swim toward the bank, I saw it was a water moccasin and threw a cinder at it.

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns

Mattel should have considered traditional pucker toe moccasins, instead of black shoes, and included symbols on the basket that Cherokees use to tell a story, she said.

From Washington Times ● Dec. 4, 2023

Soft high top hiking boots, moccasins and loafers finished the looks, with jewelry of polished stone or raw amethyst.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 17, 2023

Though these Venetian moccasins are comfy and not incredibly embarrassing to be seen with in public, your dad will surely still wear them with socks, so … what are you gonna do?

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2022

Littlefeather, who was 26 at the time, cut a regal figure — wearing moccasins and a tasseled dress, her long, dark hair parted and clipped with intricate beadwork.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 1, 2022

I was so lonely that I kept sewing on my moccasins to keep myself busy.

From "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

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